Load of the Onus
by Rugiku
Summary: Cloud is stuck on his loss, sorrow is corroding his mind. Deep themes and open ended ending. Please read and review! One OC in the last 2 chapters.
1. Load of the Onus

**This is a FFVII drabble I randomly came up with on the top my head. If the writing seems disconnected and has no plotline, don't blame me because I'm writing this near a petrol station and the fumes are addling my senses. .;**

_Load of the Onus_

I sat quietly, my back resting on the flat of the rusty blade behind me. In my hands, I clasped a small bunch of flowers from a certain church. The lilies bobbed gently in the faint breeze as I stared at the desolate plain of dirt and dust before me. My legs dangled off the edge of the cliff and the wind snagged at my black trousers and tossed my already messy blonde hair.

I slowly closed my azure eyes and slowly faded into whiteness.

I had no idea why I was back in this snowy plane. The one who had been here before had already left me behind. I lowered my eyes to the bed of flowers, the same type that I had been holding before.

I called out desperately, imploring the girl whose name was taboo to me. I longed for her to answer my desperate yells and just comfort me and say that everything will be okay.

Of course every time I came here, I was greeted with the same answer: nothing.

Silence.

I flopped down in the expanse of flowers, their heads nodding as if in sympathy with me. I covered my eyes with my black gloved hands and pulled at my bangs in frustration. Peering out at the blooms from through the cracks in my fingers, I realised they were in fact agreeing with me.

_It was all my fault you died_

I clamped my eyes shut but guilty memories swamped me, spilling over with the tears as I reopened my eyelids. I staggered upright and started running through the field, desperate to get away from that terrible memory. I charged through the flowers, oblivious of the fact that I was churning up their accusing faces.

I wanted out.

Now.

Why won't she let go of me?

This was her world, right?

Let me go already!

"_Dilly-Dally, Shilly-Shally"_

That other girl's voice floated back to me, wrapped me in sticky threads of comfort, slowing down my feet in the endless plain of those flowers that my tormenter adored.

I thought.

_I _was the one who couldn't let go…

And I accepted.

I closed my eyes.

With a rush of air in my ears, I heard distant calling,

I wasn't going back there ever. Not anymore.

The calling wasn't receding and I realised it was coming from beside me. Opening my eyes, they met a pair of brown eyes where they were joined with green-blue ones.

Denzel and Marlene were peering at me worriedly.

They were the ones I needed to protect now.

"Hey, Cloud. Were you asleep or something? We were calling you for ten minutes and you didn't open your eyes!" Marlene buried her face into my chest.

I lifted a hand to pat her on the back then I realised I was still holding a few flowers. I stood stiffly, prying Marlene off gently.

I lay the slightly wilted flowers on the ground next to the sentinel sword.

Both were remnants, both were tributes.

Both were dead.

But they were happy, so I could live with that.

"C'mon Denzel, Marlene. We're going home."

I turned and plopped both of the kids onto the front of my motorbike, working to get a smile on my face. A soft, hesitant voice caused me to look up into peacock blue eyes shaded by a light brown fringe.

"Um… Can I call you 'Dad', Cloud?"

Surprise was the first emotion that hit me. What brought this on all of a sudden? The second was guilt. After adopting the boy, I was rarely around to even have a proper conversation with considering the events and all.*

I shook my head, a real smile forming on my lips and leant down to open a compartment on the side of the bike. Out popped two helmets. One was mine, but I liked wearing my rider glasses instead. I handed one of each to the children on my bike with a smile. It suddenly hit me how small they were compared to my motorbike.

"Sure, you can call me Dad. Tifa will be surprised though. Hold on."

I swung a leg over the bike, adjusted my goggles and revved the engine earning a happy cheer from Denzel, a frightened squeak from Marlene and a lecture from Tifa later. With a smile, I flicked the bike stand up, revved the engine, kicked the bike into half-throttle (didn't want to scare Marlene any more than she is now) and roared off into the distance towards the broken city leaving swirling dust behind in our wake.

"Can we go on a trip like this again? Only with Tifa next time…"

**How did you like it? The 'Dad' thing randomly popped into my head coz I needed something to cheer poor Cloud up. Oh yeah, Denzel and Marlene came with Cloud in the first place if you were wondering… .**

**If there is any confusion, please ****review****, okay? Click the stupid link under the story and give constructive criticism. **

**Or praise. **

**Preferably the latter. **

**Here is a word you should know if you didn't know it before:**

**Onus: A burden or responsibility or, blame. In this story, it means blame, okay? **

***This story takes place after Advent Children and before Dirge of Cerberus. Just to make it clear. ^^**

**Hope you liked it,**

**Love, hugs, cookies and reviews on your stories if you review me**

**From**

**Rugiku~**


	2. Sins are Forgiven

**I'm so sorry in being late on my first update of this segment to the Load of the Onus drabble. I'm sorta starting to get busy in school so I may be late in some of my updates… sorry. T^T There is a schedule at the bottom of my Durarara! Story called Open Connection and I strongly advise you to read through it (I know this is advertisement) but read the wiki on it first if you have no idea what it's about… which you probably don't… also, there will be a schedule on my profile later so hold on until I get around to it.**

**Okay, let's go.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy aside from the game disc at the bottom of that bag… o_o**

Sins are Forgiven Sometimes

"Yay, Daddy has the day off today!" Marlene and Denzel were dancing around the bar in celebration (it was mostly Marlene though). I chuckled and Tifa giggled as she shook up a concoction for a rather annoyed bar goer sitting at a table.

It was ten in the morning and the kids were more psyched than a squirrel on caffeine. Even though it had been a month since Denzel decided to start calling me 'Dad', it sorta didn't stick with me. Occasionally, the boy would call 'Dad' but I wouldn't answer since I had forgotten. Work wasn't help either. It kept me on the road, occasionally having to cross continents quite a lot I wasn't home with my… family…

The word 'family' seemed foreign to me, especially coming out of my own mouth.

Snapping back to reality, I shook myself out of my reverie.

"So, who wants to go on a trip to somewhere?" I asked to the members of my family. There were squeals of excitement and laughter.

"I wanna go to Kalm and see daddy, Cloud." Said Marlene; she still calls me Cloud but I'm not particularly fussed.

"I wanna go to Bone Village to look for treasure!" Denzel leaped up and tickled Marlene, making her squirm.

"Stop that Denzel, and Bone Village is a scary place… not to mention those haunted forests right next to it!" Tifa shivered.

"How about we visit Vincent? He practically lives in the Forbidden City which is near Bone Village anyway and the anniversary is tomorrow.

Tifa was referring to the anniversary of the day Aerith died. I shivered, not wanting to go back there and back to my reserved self. I was about to mention the transport problems (seeing as Fenrir could only hold three people) until the phone in my back pocket vibrated. Reaching behind, I took the phone out of the pocket and glanced at the caller ID. It was Barret. Flipping it open I held it to my ear.

"Hey, Barret. What's up?" I was greeted b y loud yelling.

"Hey Spiky! Look, I've got a day off for today and tomorrow and I was thinking about coming over to visit Marlene. Are ya going anywhere? I could take Marlene off your hands for a while?" I covered the mouthpiece to the phone and repeated the question to Tifa. Her eyes lit up and nodded.

"Hey, Barret… Tifa, Denzel and I were just about to go to the Forbidden City for tomorrow. D'you wanna come with Marlene?"

"HELL YEAH! I'LL COME AS SOON AS I CAN!" and the link shut as Barret hung up. Denzel and Marlene were laughing at the big man's reaction (judging by the look on the lone customer's face, Barret's voice was loud enough to reach him!).

Tifa and I found out later that Barret had called Reeve, Red XIII and Cid about the arrangements and turns out they had empty days as well. Reeve then called Yuffie and she promised to make it to the anniversary as well.

I was left with the dismal task of calling Vincent Valentine about the visit.

"Okay. Just don't leave a mess when you leave." The line went dead.

I stared at the phone in shock. I had expected a long, tedious argument with the enigmatic man but the gunman had allowed a _party_ in the Forbidden City. Shaking my head, I told the rest of the present group about the agreement and set off to help Tifa make lunches for everyone until late in the night.

The next morning, Cid parked the _Highwind _just outside of Midgar and our entire group piled in. We went to pick up Yuffie and Reeve who had been tying up loose ends in his work near Wutai. With Yuffie trying to not hurl her guts onto the bridge and have a furious, cursing Cid at her neck, she just retreated to her room.

Nearing the ghostly city, Cid touched down within a walking distance to the glowing white trees of the area and abandoned base of Kadaj and his gang.

Vincent Valentine was waiting just outside the tree line for our gang. As we neared the darkening barrier that was the norm for the area, he turned to lead us deeper into his part of the woods (not sure if the pun was intended).

The kids were excited to see the glowing white trunks and the great spiral shells that occasionally littered the area.

We stopped at a large pool in front of the largest shell dwelling as Denzel, Marlene and I cringed, remembering the events in the very same pool only a couple of months before.

Tifa came up behind me and dragged me away while grabbing Denzel and Marlene at the same time.

We stopped later near an area with deep wells full of Aerith's water. Denzel and Marlene helped take out the picnic blanket while everyone else either loitered around or helped unpack the huge basket we had brought along.

When I looked up again, Denzel and Marlene were traipsing around the wells as Tifa warned them not to get too close.

There was a crack and the stone Denzel was standing on tumbled into the water, Denzel following it.

In a flash, I had leapt to my feet and charged towards where Denzel was falling slow motion where behind me, there were cries of warning. I managed to hook an arm around Denzel's body, but the rocks around the well were unstable so I was forced to throw the poor boy backwards while falling into the well myself.

One of the rocks hit my head, jerking it back hard and made my vision black out. My upper body and waist were already in the water, I could feel it. I was sliding into the water as my muddled brain processed the fact that I'd be stuck upside down without enough space to manoeuvre myself out.

In the water the sides of the well were luminescent, having a green-blue glow. Far below, I saw a small, dark, rectangular object.

_So that's where my phone went… _I thought rather redundantly.

Old conversations rushed through the water to my ears, the sounds overlapping with each other.

One voice echoed hauntingly, overpowering all the other voices.

_I didn't blame you. Not once._

Black swallowed my vision and I floated deeper towards my old memories and sins.

Air, blessed air, rushed back into my dead lungs as I gasped. Weakly rolling over onto my side and coughed out what felt like half the sea. I heard worried voices swirling around me.

Opening bleary eyes, there were eight faces and a red muzzle staring at my face. Rubbing the water out of my eyes, I sat up with a groan.

"I'm fine, I'm serious." I kept repeating those words knowing that it was all just to comfort my friends.

Denzel ran up and clutched my relatively thin, sopping wet frame.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Denzel would sob those two, condemning words as I gently brushed his wavy hair.

"It's alright, it's alright." I would repeat those knowing it was my own decision to save Denzel. I would never forgive myself if he was the one who fell into that well.

After all I was sick of not being able to protect my family and friends.

Suddenly, a past event in the very same place surfaced in my mind.

"Hey, Vincent," The enigmatic man looked up in alarm.

"What?"  
"I've just remembered. Sins _are _forgiven. You should try." I confessed with a grin

The other members of Avalanche stared in confusion as Marlene laughed.

**Yay! Finally finished. *sighs in relief* I hope you all enjoyed this late instalment of Load of the Onus. ^_^ **

**Please review and cookies are on the inside of the link below this story.**

**I may be late in some of my updates since study (ew… o_o) and school (O_o;;;) come first (T^T). I hope you all keep reading this fan-fiction of Cloud returning to the light and floating high on cloud nine with his friends (pun intended… I know it was a bad one -_-).**


	3. Rashina

**Hello, I'm back with Load of the Onus.**

**I'm sorry for being absent for the past five weeks so I hope this chapter will make up for the absence~**

**This is a two part segment in this oneshot… so it's more of a twoshot… if that makes sense…**

**There will be an OC in this as well.**

**Anyone who has an idea (whether half-formed or crappy, I don't care), please tell me by reviewing!**

**I just started this story out of boredom and want of: a) Kadaj and his gang back and b) a new chapter to this story. So please help out and give me ideas or requests for anything you want to happen. :D **

Rashina- Part One

In that desolate land underneath the upper ring of Midgar lies a special place where there are flowers and pure water; a rarity.

This special place is a ruined old church on the side of a dusty old, monster-ridden road.

There just happens to be a special, motley family that comes once or twice every year for a celebration at this very place.

At this time, there they are, travelling in an odd assortment of vehicles overflowing with passengers, all heading for the same building. Brooms, mops, cloths, buckets and a large picnic basket clutter up whatever remaining space they had left in their vehicles, if not any.

At the same time, another group of familiar faces were at a certain church as well.

"Are we there yet?" Marlene chirped from between Tifa, Denzel, Red XIII and Reeve. Barrett's eyebrow twitched for the umpteenth time on the trip and turned away from the wheel to say with barely suppressed anger;

"We'll get there when we get there!"

"Barrett! You're driving, remember?" Chided Tifa, not particularly frightened that Barrett had left the steering wheel unattended for about ten seconds.

"Oh, right." Barrett turned back as Yuffie said, "Great role model, eh, kids?"

Denzel and Marlene laughed in the back as they rounded a turn.

A dog-like beast suddenly leapt out but was reduced to black smoke in a matter of milliseconds.

There were a couple more shots that definitely sounded like Vincent taking out his frustration from sitting in the back of a truck with the company of only the wind and Cid for a couple of hours. Finally, Cerberus quietened down as the black motorcycle that lead the way slowed in front of a half collapsed building.

Everyone tumbled out of the truck to stretch their limbs and collect their equipment.

Cloud strode up to the large wooden doors and took a deep breath. He looked up with determination in his eyes and pushed open the door.

The first change in the church was the water.

The water itself was fine, but the person _in _the water was what caught everyone's interest. Short, slightly longer than shoulder length, silver hair and black leather; yep, definitely a remnant.

The second change was that the church was already cleaned up. The wooden pews were straightened and dusted, the windows were cleaned and collapsed pieces of rubble had been cleared away.

The third was the company.

Yazoo and Loz had returned.

In a flash, swords, spears and a variety of gun barrels were pointed at the silver-haired newcomers.

Yazoo raised his hands and said, "Hey, we come in peace. No need to get aggressive," from atop a broken column.

"Yeah, we even cleaned up this place for all the new arrivals!" Loz pulled a face and Yazoo said,

"Stop crying, Loz…"

Thus started an argument until the figure in the pond commanded, "Silence!"

"Sorry, little sis."

Yazoo jumped down off his pillar and approached Cloud's group.

"Didn't you and Loz die?" Cloud lowered his sword enough to say 'if you try anything funny, I will hurt you'.

Yazoo shrugged. "I have no more idea how we're alive than you. I don't think Loz knows either."

Yuffie stared past Yazoo…

"So… who's your newest sibling?"

Loz looked over and said, "She's our little sister, Rashina."

Yazoo nodded and added, "When we woke up, Rashina was with us for some reason or another, hell we already knew her name. Personally, I like her so I don't mind."

"I can hear you guys, ya know…" Rashina turned around to glare at her two older brothers. "Besides, she's nearly here."

This seemed to pique the two brothers' interest as they hurried over to the water's edge.

Cloud's group entered the church, set down their belongings on a few pews and then joined the two silver-haired brothers at the water's edge.

There was silence all but for a drop of water hitting the surface of the pond.

As if on cue, the water reared up and spiralled upwards to form a moving water fountain. From within the sheet of water being poured down, a silver haired man was forming and solidifying, clutching a feminine hand with a gold bracelet around the wrist.

As the hand let go, the body fell with a splash into the pond and sank like a rock. Rashina waded deeper to drag the body back to the surface.

"Nii-sama?" asked Rashina.

The man floating in the water groaned and his eyelids fluttered open. By this time, Loz and Yazoo had also entered the water and were gathered around Kadaj.

Kadaj stared at his closest siblings and said,

"Who are you?"

**So how did you like the first part? Also, please give me any requests in what you would like to happen in the story because this segment was started out of boredom but has no apparent end…**

**TAT**

**I'm sorry this is so short…**

**OCxKadaj?**

**OCxanyone?**

**Anyonexanyone?**

**Just review and tell me‼**


	4. Part Two

**Well, I haven't gotten any reviews on this story so I've thought up my own and it will be about another 2 chapters on this arc, not just 2.**

**Ooh yeah, I now have a cat and I've called it Rashina. I just really like the name. :P**

**My creative juices have run dry a little and I really need them for my upcoming finals so a lot of my work will be on a huge hiatus so this may be one of the last chapters I write until the main holidays. **

**Mind you, I live in Australia so my summer break is reversed to most of my readers', i.e. your summer holidays are in my winter (June-August) where my long holidays are in your winter (December-February) assuming you live in the northern hemisphere, more so America and that sort of region. . **

**However, I'm only in junior high so I actually will be finishing around late October, so I'll start then.**

**I really need to study… and finish so many assignments…**

**TT_TT**

Rashina- Part Two

You could feel the shattered feelings of the siblings standing in the water.

There was silence, as if the wind had stopped over a battlefield leaving the heavy stench of death to fester in the air.

Yazoo was the first to recover. He smiled calmly, all of his broken-heartedness melted behind a calm façade. He pried Rashina's frozen fingers off Kadaj and pushed Loz away to give Kadaj space to stand properly.

Rashina's fingers fell limply into the water as she stared shocked at Kadaj. Loz fell back into the water, floating chest high in the clear liquid.

"I'm Yazoo, over there is Loz and this is Rashina. We are all your siblings." Yazoo smiled pleasantly at Kadaj as he stared at Cloud and his group as if they were mysterious objects.

"Who're they?"

Cloud started, unused to Kadaj behaving so… curious; like a little child.

Cloud stowed away his sword and walked to the edge of the pond, holding out his hand.

"I'm Cloud Strife. Nice to meet you!" Cloud smiled as he grabbed Kadaj's hand and pulled him out of the water.

"This is Tifa and Denzel, my family." Tifa shook Kadaj's hand and Denzel shyly said 'hi' from behind Tifa, still wary. Red XIII leant over and whispered something into Denzel's ear and then the russet beast turned and gave his greetings to the silver haired man.

"This is Barrett and Marlene is his adoptive daughter." Marlene waved as her father shook Kadaj's hand.

"Vincent, Cid, Reeve and Yuffie are also part of our group." Cloud finished and he glanced behind.

He was surprised to see Yazoo and Loz (who wasn't crying for once) comforting their weeping sister.

Yazoo whispered something to Loz and then picked up Rashina up bridal style. Yazoo stepped out of the water with his younger sister as Loz said to the silent crowd, "Uh, Rashina's feeling sick so she'll be resting for a bit." and hurried up the broken stairs after his brother and sister.

Tifa decided to break the silence afterwards.

"So, who's up for lunch?"

Marlene had slipped away as the older people went for lunch. As she crept up the stairs, she saw the backs of Rashina and Yazoo. As she was about to sneak closer, her stomach let out a loud gurgle. Two pairs of bright blue eyes were fixed in her direction along with a pair of heavy, leather shoes. Marlene peered up and was met with Loz staring down at her. He leant down and picked Marlene up by the back of her pink shirt before being dropped.

A solid _thunk_ echoed through the room as Loz rubbed the back of head after the piece of wood Rashina lobbed at him.

"That is not how you treat a lady no matter how young, Loz." Rashina said sternly before muttering, "That's why he'll never get a girl friend."

Yazoo chuckled and Loz started whining until Rashina threatened to throw another hunk of wood that littered the attic of the church.

Rashina waved Marlene over. "Come over here, we don't bite." She said before yelping as Yazoo leant over and bit her ear. Shoving her older brother over, she added, "Well, at least I don't bite."

Marlene giggled and ran over to hug Loz.

Rashina smiled. "I see you've met before."

Yazoo smirked and said, "It's a long story. You'll be a crinkly old lady when we finish that story."

"So what? I'll never hear the end of the story anyway 'cos you'll be even older, deafer, crinklier and forgetfuller than me!" Rashina poked Yazoo's cheek but snatched the digit away just as her brother's teeth clicked together where it was before. Rashina smacked the top of Yazoo's silver head, saying "Bad dog."

Yazoo scowled at her. "I'm not a dog and forgetfuller's not a word."

Marlene giggled at the sight of a sibling's squabble as Loz muttered, "It's been like this for the past three days."

_Clonk-clonk_.

Two chunks of wood bounced off his head one after the other. With a roar, Loz jumped onto Yazoo (starting a fight) as Rashina eased herself out of the scuffle.

Rashina crouched down next to Marlene and said with a smile, "So what's your name? I didn't catch it before."

Marlene giggled but just as she open her mouth to say her name, the old, mouldy, wooden floor boards they were standing on splintered and broke.

Loz had attempted a wrestling move on Yazoo who had twisted but hit the floor awkwardly, breaking both it and his wrist. Marlene freaked out and grabbed Rashina as the youngest sibling fell through the hole her brothers created.

"You idiots!" Rashina shrieked at her brothers and grabbed Marlene, dragged her off her leather coat and threw the younger girl over the pond.

Marlene entered the water with a splash but the siblings landed on slightly more unforgiving surfaces.

Rashina landed on a broken plank of wood and a three inch long splinter stabbed her in the hand, causing blood to gush out of the wound making her scream in pain. Yazoo bounced off a pillar, bruising his back and landing on his broken wrist. Loz landed hard on one of the heavy pews and there were three sickening cracks as his ribs broke.

Tifa and Yuffie who had been inside to see the incident called for help as they reached for their Heal Materia. The two stopped at Yazoo and Loz, and prepared to set their bones straight so they could use Heal. Yazoo shook off Tifa and gestured at Rashina and the pond. The two stared slightly befuddled until they saw Rashina rip out the splinter and jump into the water for a familiar, drenched, brown head bobbing above and below the water.

"MARLENE‼"

Rashina had finally reached Marlene and dragged her coughing out of the water. The water was billowing with red liquid and when Marlene figured out what the red stuff was, the older girl had heaved her onto the safe wooden floorboards.

Marlene was wrapped he dad's jacket as he repeatedly asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm okay Dad. It's alright, it was an accident!"

Rashina was hauled out of the water and placed next to her older brothers as Yuffie picked out splinters from the wound. There was a click and a yelp as Yazoo's wrist was set back into place.

Rashina grabbed Yuffie's hand and glared into her eyes.

Yuffie stopped what she was doing and uncertainly released Rashina's hand which was still pumping out blood, splattering everything a dark red. The young ninja turned to Loz and began to cast heal on him.

A bright turquoise light enveloped Loz's chest and there was a skin-crawling grinding noise as his bones moved back into place. Tifa also was healing Yazoo, her own bluish-green light wrapped around the middle brother's wrist. Yazoo winced and gingerly tested the joint as soon as the light faded.

Yuffie had moved on to heal Rashina and as the ruined flesh knitted together again, Rashina twitched and fainted, flopping to the side.

There were alarmed cries and eventually, with a tortured gasp of air, Rashina bolted upright with wide eyes as if she had nearly drowned and promptly vomited.

"Damn, it's in her now." Yazoo cursed then shifted over to Rashina and hugged her wet, trembling form. Loz groaned and started to explain.

"When we woke up a couple of weeks ago, Yazoo and I found that the Materia we took from you before… well, our bodies rejected it for some reason." Loz looked at Kadaj, unused to explaining things rather than being explained to. "We're not sure if Kadaj is okay with Materia too. It might be all of the remnants from the information we've been gathering." Loz rubbed the back of his neck.

"Wait, so if you say it's just the remnants, then that means Cloud might be allergic to Materia too," Tifa tugged on Cloud's sleeve. "Can I check?"

Cloud took Tifa's hand and walked outside the church while the rest of the group milled around, unsure of what to do.

Kadaj walked closer and slowly, hesitantly, knelt down in front of Rashina and patted her head like what an older brother might do.

Rashina, stunned at the new behaviour, stared at Kadaj for a second then flung herself, crying into his chest. Kadaj seemed to have regained some of a human-like behaviour and smiled down at his youngest sibling and hugged her back.

Yazoo smiled lightly and stood slightly unsteadily, Loz quickly following suit.

A heavy, gold gauntlet landed heavily on Loz's shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Vincent Valentine's voice was smooth and held subtle, luxurious hints of a threat. (A/N I'm also a Valentine fangirl whore… wSoz)

Loz turned slightly and said with about as much control as he could muster, "We're leaving to find a safe home; away from everything, so we don't need your help."

Vincent's eyes flashed a dangerous gold and Loz visibly tensed before both Yuffie and Yazoo separated the two.

"Hey, Vince. How about we go do something else? I'm sure we need to clear a way to get through back to upper Midgar, you can help me get rid of some of the monsters." Yuffie prattled on and on until Vincent finally turned his attention to the young ninja and wasn't seething murderous intent.

Yazoo was less subtle in his intervention. The middle brother slammed a palm into Loz's jaw and shoved his younger sibling further away, nearly into the pool. A fight ensued but less heated and not in-between the two different groups inside the church.

Kadaj picked Rashina up bridal style and walked towards the great broken doors of Aerith's Church. Cloud and Tifa (who looked very relieved about not seeing a reaction after using Heal on him) paused at the door as Kadaj walked out with his load.

"Oh, hey. Where are you going?" Tifa called out to the eldest brother. Cloud grabbed Tifa's arm, a warning gesture. Obviously, he was still unsure whether or not Kadaj could be trusted.

Just then, Yazoo appeared and said, "Thanks for all your help but we're going to be more trouble than you can handle so it's best if we left."

Cloud snorted.

"How are you going to leave? By walking around unarmed in the middle of monster territory, with an injured sister to boot?" Cloud crossed his arms. Yazoo and Loz (who had followed his family out) paused and glanced at each other. Clearly, they hadn't thought of a plan any farther than bringing their older brother back.

"We've got motorcycles if it makes you feel any better," Rashina piped up in a quiet voice. "But we still don't have anywhere to stay."

"Well, you can stay with us at the bar," Marlene and Denzel had snuck out with Loz and Yazoo along with most of Cloud's group. "If Tifa and Dad don't mind…" added Denzel.

Tifa sighed. "Okay then, Denzel. We can move the stuff in the living room into the bar's storage for space."

Marlene cheered and ran over to Loz and pulled on his hand.

"Are you sure I can keep this?"

Rashina tugged at the over-sized t-shirt that stopped short of her knees. Tifa smiled as she folded away some of the old clothes nostalgically kept from six years ago.

"Sure. My entire wardrobe is yours for now. Tomorrow, we're going shopping for new clothes." Tifa winked and Rashina gave a half-hearted smile in thanks. "And besides, that's Cloud's old T-shirt. Never liked that ratty old thing." Rashina laughed.

"But we don't want to be dead weight for you and Cloud, I mean you've got to take care for Denzel and Marlene too." Tifa smiled motherly at Rashina.

"You can help in the bar. If you feel well enough, maybe you can help Cloud deliver the orders we get." Rashina smiled sunnily and sat on the single bed that had been moved into one of the cleaned up offices.

"Okay, if you and your brothers are good then I'll go to my room. Just holler if you want anything!" Tifa left the door open and less than three seconds later, Loz, Yazoo and Kadaj tumbled into the room (more like just Loz tumbled in. Yazoo and Kadaj walked in normally like the rest of us).

"Sorry for taking the only bed, guys." Rashina smiled apologetically as Loz tackled her in a hug and Kadaj shook his head. "We'll be fine on the floor."

The mattress on the floor was large enough for Red to sleep in with some rolling space so it was enough for three men to sleep on perfectly fine. Yazoo closed the door and settled on the mattress, drawing the blanket over the three of them.

"G'night." Rashina flicked off the light and wriggled deeper into the creaky bed.

"Night."

And all was silent.

A torrent of squeals came from the protesting bed as Rashina crawled out and dragged the blankets off and with the sliver of moonlight through the window, she dumped the pile on her brothers before crawling in afterwards.

"Didn't want the bed?" Kadaj's soft voice floated over to Rashina.

"I like sleeping with you guys. It's warmer." Rashina wriggled closer and her brothers held her tighter.

"Sure."

Tifa awoke to breakfast already made and the bar cleaned up.

"Having fun cooking?" Tifa leant against the doorframe in her night gown and watched Kadaj cook.

"Yeah. I slept well last night and my siblings are still asleep like puppies in a basket." Kadaj carefully slid a fried egg onto a plate and grimaced when he broke the yolk.

"Don't worry. With practice you'll get it." Tifa said before peeking into the siblings' room. As Kadaj said, the floor was a mess of blankets and snoring kids (well, they were sleeping like a bunch of kids anyway).

"I feel better with them around, like I need to protect them from something." Kadaj sat on one of the bar stools. "Even though I can't remember any of them."

Tifa sat next to him. "Well, that doesn't matter. We all take little steps forwards each of us holding onto the person next to them. That's how families work." Tifa rubbed Kadaj's back and he smiled back.

"Anyway, you'll have to be pulling your own weight from now on around here. Luckily, we got too many orders over the anniversary for just Cloud to handle. You and Loz can help with that." Tifa stood and clapped her hands.

"Yazoo can mind shop until we come back."

"Huh? What are we doing?" Yazoo rubbed the sleep from his eyes as Cloud stepped out of his room, dressed and ready.

"Cloud, Loz and Kadaj are going to help with the deliveries. Give them a map and the packages." Tifa said as Cloud grabbed a piece of toast and stuck it in his mouth.

"Mmfkay." And was out of the door.

"I'm minding the bar?" Yazoo looked shocked for once. Tifa nodded, "The morning is slow so just do the washing up in the sink and wiping the tables."

"Where're you going?"

"Shopping." Rashina stepped out from behind Yazoo. "Tifa, where's the bathroom?"

"It's down the corridor and the right hand door." Tifa walked back into her room and shut the door. "Get ready and get going! Your clothes are in the cupboard in your room." Tifa's muffled shout came through the door and the brothers got moving.

**Snap decision, I've finished this arc and until further notice, there will be no other chapters. Sorry, but I hope you enjoyed this series!**

**Kinda open ended but hey, happy ending. Use your imagination!**

**Thanks and dedication to everyone who has awaited my very (x 100) belated update. **


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